Close Encounters of the Monstrous Kind and Big Dry Fly Pumpkinseeds

There are occasionally fleeting moments in fishing, brief encounters, glimpses of huge fish that leave one shaking and gasping for breath. Today I had one of those encounters. I hit a couple of spots in a Connecticut River harbor looking for winter holdover stripers. The first yielded nothing. 

The second spot gave me a surprise on the third cast. I did three quick strips then began swinging the fly. Towards the middle of the swing it began to work it's way up in the water column and I began to strip. I could see the fly, it was a highly visible white and chartreuse Gartside. Suddenly a huge striper came up and slammed the fly. I tried to set the hook and failed but he was back on it again. This time I felt him for a second. Then the big fish was gone. There was my shot, the best I've had at a big striper all year, and then it was gone. I fished that for another couple of hours and didn't move so much as a perch.

On my way home I passed the pond that has been producing bluegills on dries all through fall and a bit into December. Based on how cold it was last night I wasn't planning on fishing on doing any lake or pond fishing for a few days, but I stopped for a minute just for giggles. And there were rises. I went home and switched gear to something lighter. When I got back to the pond it did not take long. I got a good number of pumpkinseeds of decent size, and plenty of smaller bluegills. Would I rather have caught a striper? Obviously, but in the absence of the one I'll take the other!